New Location Based App Coming to Syracuse

I am currently a student at The Maxwell School at Syracuse University working towards my Masters in Public Administration. I use this blog to write about my experiences at Maxwell, especially related to social media use in the public sector. You can follow me on Twitter: @pjfiorenza and please feel free to leave some comments! http://pjfiorenza.wordpress.com/

Can’t pass up the chance to brag about Syracuse! There are some really cool developments coming out of The Connective Corridor project here in Syracuse. A Press Release from The Connective Corridor website states, “The USE app, a play on SyracUSE, can be imagined as a fireworks show with four components: a bus tracker, event listings, social networking tools, and “augmented reality.” The bus tracker, set to debut in February, ties into Centro’s GPS infrastructure and displays the buses moving along the screen in real time.” I know many of my colleagues at Syracuse use the bus route and have smart phones, so this will be a great service for students and the community to use.

The app was designed by a group of Syracuse University students, led by a PhD candidate Keisuke Inoue and faculty member Jen Hamilton. I am really glad to see these developments, and hope they begin to spill over into local government as well.

A little more on The Connective Corridor, the goal of The Connective Corridor is to link the Syracuse University Campus with downtown Syracuse. Their website states, “The Connective Corridor is emerging as a signature strip of cutting-edge cultural development connecting the University Hill with downtown Syracuse.”

The project has a lot of really cool plans for the city. They are hoping to link the campus to the city and create new urban landscapes, art, creative lighting and signs, and bike paths. When I was working at Syracuse Habitat for Humanity, I noticed the art work all the time on my way to work. It’s a great program, and helping revitalize a city’s unique identity. It’s also great seeing my institution collaborating with the City of Syracuse.

I also will have the opportunity to hear some guest speakers who work for the City of Syracuse and various community leaders this semester. I think they will have some valuable insights about the program and the City of Syracuse. I’ll keep you posted if I hear any updates on progress with The Connective Corridor.

Great progress for Syracuse and hopefully more on the way. The app hopefully will be released in February, can’t wait to check it out!